Le campane di San Rocco, Premia (VB)

The village of Premia (Verbania) developed in medieval times, replacing a Roman village. In the 13th century, several oratories sprang up along the main road leading to the upper part of the valley, where the Swiss-Italian border lay. Next to the famous hospice of Saint Bernard, a safe refuge for those travelling along the trade route between Ossola and the Swiss cantons, an oratory dedicated to Saint Rocco was also built, which depended on the parish priest of Baceno. The history of the oratory changed on 15 August 1556, when it was erected as a parish church by Cardinal Morone; the small medieval chapel was demolished and rebuilt in twenty years, with three naves and six very precious altars. The parish church stands out in the middle of the village because of its imposing bell tower, completed in 1581 following a transalpine taste. The beautiful stone bell tower houses five bells in the scale of the G major, dating from different historical periods. The smallest bell dates from 1634, the year in which the Frenchman Desiderio Bonavilla was called in to cast it with the help of various craftsmen from the village. The Mazzola brothers created a new concert of four bells in 1819, recasting the cracked old bells and preserving the historic 17th-century bell. The two major bells cracked in the following decades, re-cast in 1876 by Bizzozero and in 1904 by a descendant of the Mazzola family. The spire above the belfry is reminiscent of Austrian towers, creating a magnificent contrast with the mountain next to it. [f' sharp] - a' - b' - c'' - e'' The documentary on these bells was made with the help of Luca, who arrived from England to celebrate Easter. It is the last church missing from the area and personally one of the most interesting. The church was decorated between the 17th century and the following century, as the fortunate emigration of a confraternity to Bologna and Florence had brought money and artists to the mountains, transforming the church into a rich baroque. At the foot of the plaster statue of the holy apostle Peter stands one of the oldest bells in the area, donated in 1590 by a noble family who emigrated to Tuscany. #vlogs #travel #italy #bells #church #bell #culture #city #catholicchurch #mountain #view #landscape #tradition